The goal of “The Black Gotham Digital Archive” is to link an interactive web site, smart phones, and the geographical spaces of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn to create a deeper understanding of nineteenth-century black New York. The project is an extension of my book, Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City (Yale UP, 2011), as I seek new media . . . Read More
Reviews
“Carla Peterson’s Black Gotham is at once a tender labor of love and a tour de force of historical scholarship; both a romantic journey into her family’s past and a clear-eyed restoration of an essential, long-lost element in a people’s history. A story of New York, it resounds with implications for all of America. Peterson deserves our rapt attention and our gratitude.”
“Black Gotham is a wonderful and rare portrait of New York City, told through the lens of a truly remarkable African-American family. Peterson’s historical detective work is fascinating.”
“Carla Peterson travels the well known streets of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn to uncover the rich and hidden history of New York’s black elite in the nineteenth century. That the book arose from her research into her own family history reminds us that in all of our families lies the story of this country.”
“Carla Peterson’s Black Gotham presents the best, most detailed portrait of New York City’s nineteenth-century black elite. Using her own search for her family roots as a thread to pull the reader through the narrative, Peterson provides insight into the work lives, political roles, and personal lives of this small but highly influential group of black New Yorkers.”
“Dr. Peterson took a hard, uphill journey to give greater life to the ‘scraps’ she had about her family in nineteenth-century New York City and returned with a vital gift for all of us. It is a gift that not only offers a portrait of her family in that city but a larger, fairly unknown view of a pre-Harlem integrated society where many blacks were prosperous, enlightened, and thriving. Her book is a precious addition to the paucity of information we have about what blacks have done to make New York City and, indeed, America itself.”
